Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 3 - Do NOT buy this laptop... 

Totally fair review from Mat. I love Surface laptops too, they are gorgeous and well-built, with Zero bloatware, zero promotions, great-designed minimal system control software that doesn't hog your system in the background with random memory leaks and battery drain, and zero stickers - a truly premium experience that can rival Apple but they were always the fancier or the more expensive choice. This year, Microsoft lost their minds putting in a year-old chip and pricing it to the moon. Can't wait to see their future as when it comes to the PC industry, Surface devices benefit the most from ARM chips.

No backlight on a laptop is just unacceptable nowadays. Its just immensely practical aspect. Let alone everything else mentioned at $1000

This is how all tech reviews should be done! Just visualising a customer scenario going to a store or shopping online and building a script around it.

It is a short, but one of the best videos he has made so far. It is so accurate, and on point. I have seen a ton of videos for the same product and people have tried hard to justify its price so much. But here, he was brutally honest and I respect that. Saved so many people from stupidly spending their money.

I literally bought a brand new Dell xps 15 with a dedicated nvidia gpu, i7, 16gb ram, 512gb ssd for around $990 including tax during the back to school sale in August on the Dell website. Are people seriously paying 1k for the Laptop Go? That is a total rip off.

Good and honest review. My work sent me a Surface Go 3 laptop and I hate it... the charging plug keeps falling out and it's underpowered for driving multiple monitors in a work at home setup.

Great narrative storytelling! Do this more often. It's very engaging!

so facts, OVERPRICED!!, super like how you explain & compare things 👍🏻

Agree completely with this excellent review. Unfortunately, over the pond here in ol’ Blighty we can’t get anything like the BestBuy bargains at the price points indicated. For example, the very good Zenbook 14X is over £1,200 here in the UK right now, and that is with a discount, albeit in an i9 and 1TB set up but still we can’t get hold of any other spec for less. But I would never recommend this Microsoft laptop for the price anyway as the competition is still better even when equally ludicrously priced. Love your reviews, Matthew. Keep them going!

This is what some people don’t fully understand. It’s not just the brand it’s what you get for your money.

Love this style of role playing review xD thanks for bringing devices like these to our attention that no other reviewer seems to be doing. You're the best MATT!!! 🙌

Hi Mathew. I just subscribed to your channel. Great review. Can you recommend a 10-12 inch laptop better than surface go? I feel microsoft is targeting people who are specially interested on smaller laptops. Sadly i havent find a decent competitor on this size segment.

Thanks for making a short video and not followin/milking the algorithm 👍🏻 However, I am certain 99% of the buyers will be able to see the display before taking one home

I totally agree with you, it’s good as a sub $500, but at the price it’s in, that’s just sad!! And they get surprised when their surface line is not doing good! It’s just sad what they do

"I can't even recommend it to my grandmother" sums up everything 😹

I'm part of the niche community that really likes these smaller compact laptops going all the way back to the netbook days. I still own the 1st gen Surface Laptop Go and the only compact laptop that resembled this was Apple's old 12in retina macbook. A large tablet+keyboard case has become the norm nowadays. For those like me that prefer a traditional laptop but still want a small compact device, the Surface Laptop Go line might be our last hope.

This is really unfortunate but this has been the case with some laptops for some time. I had looked for an ultrabook for uni, something light that I could use instead of my phone for looking at docs and ended up with a gaming laptop that I never used for gaming. The internals were just so much better (although more costly, I think worth it). I now have a convertible chromebook for flights and general travel and its not even that much lighter but the smaller form factor is great.

Glad to see someone call MS out for this. I've been noticing this for years and it's always a shame that MS thinks because Apple charges a premium that they can do it too.

Hi there, I want to know if the Asus 15" OLED Laptop, Asus Zenbook 14X, and the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Pro you showcase have at least backlight keyboards or not.

Just to say, the form factor and build on these are great like a better-built netbook or an old macbook 12". but not at $1k. But if that's what you want, absolutely go for an open-box laptop go 2 at around $450 (i5/8/128). Temper your performance expectations, but it's useful, light, and easy to travel.

For those wanting a well built thin and light laptop for under $999, even the Macbook Air M1 would be a much, much better option than this and regularly goes on sale for $750

I have a lenovo slim pro 7, I love it, its quite fast for my needs and I won the gpu overclocking lottery because I was able to clock mine 320hz more. One of my friends got the surface go and he also hates how slow it is

I use a 12 inch Macbook as a secondary device, and it's amazing that it got almost all these things right back in 2015. Fanless design, accurate 1440p screen, keyboard backlighting, A+ trackpad, plus good battery life, in a very thin, high quality chassis. The performance is pretty unusable for anything but the stock apps and some web browsing nowadays, but that mac with a recent M-series chip and more modern bezels would probably be the ideal 12 inch device.

Fair review. Just bought my niece a Asus Zenbook 14x with i7-13700H, 16 GB RAM, 512GB SSD for $749 + tax. Fingers crossed.

I like how he made the presentation so that I don't get scammed. Seriously a minute ago I was browsing MS store on this laptop, and was surprised at the price and specs.

if you are a student and spending $999 for laptop consider buying macbook air 13 with m1 chip. it is not the best but if you are not in specific area that requires good performance you will be good to go. the reason i advocate for macbook is that it has all the things student would need. good screen, keyboard, trackpad, and especially the battery. i have picked up one used and only complaint i have is how delicate the screen is. it scratches way to easily and gets dirty all the time. on top of that it is hard to clean. edit: also the storage situation is really bad with apple. i didn't mind 256gb version since only thing i'm going to store is pdf files.

What's the best bang/buck dedicated gpu for laptops to look out for ? Around 1200-1500 €

I lovd this style review, keep it up Matt 😂👍

What to buy instead: M1 Macbook Air at $749 M2 Macbook Air 13" at $899 These laptops are 100x better especially the battery life and performance

Do not buy anything running Windows costing less 1000USD. They gonna slow down in max one year and will need replacement in two years. Get a mid/high level Chromebook it will stay fast until you replace it 5-6 years down the road.

Absolutely banger of a review. Thanks Matthew!

I appreciate the honesty here, Matthew.

I don’t even want this laptop and yet this is the best review I’ve watched (granted it’s the only review I’ve watched because, like I said, I don’t want this laptop), but it made me laugh while being informative! Love your channel, love the knowledge and humour, just subbed ✌️

The 1 thing that surface overcome normal laptop is "the size" 12inch. It's small and easy to carry. Asus ZenBook s13 13.3inch might can replace with better spec but size still bigger.

Great review. Loved the style of narration.

Great review. Thanks.

Yep this is the trick non-techy people into getting a product that looks aesthetically pleasing with the Microsoft branding. Google doing some of it's own finessing with their new Gaming Chromebook line up. They even got celebrities endorsing it in commercials. Please do a review of that hahah

Matt with the nice way of being savage 😂

The narration style and story telling was amazing. Kudos sir !!

Wow the alternatives are crazy in comparison

Thanks, Im in the market for a small laptop so this helps a looot!!!

I'm an ICT engineer. I've had a couple of Surface products personally, and I was also part of an organisation which rolled out hundreds of Surface Pro 7 machines to school children and teachers as we switched over to hybrid lessons. Whilst, with any device it's expected to have a good volume of machines which will fail for a variety of reasons, especially when loaded up for specific use with additional hardware and third party bridging to make them all compatible, it just felt like I was sending a disproportional amount of them back to Microsoft for replacement. Overheating, glass warping, bricking. My personal Surface products have also had problems. Yet despite all this just last week I'm trailing a Surface Pro 8 as my work device, hoping it would change my negative experiences with these devices because they're just so freaking cool! I really want to like the Surface line up of products! Come on, Microsoft. Keep at it but do better!

Why did this YT channel stop getting recommended to me, i literally watch the same type of content

Bad take imo. I agree the price point is too high, fwiw it NEEDS to come down to by a couple hundred, though I disagree with almost everything else. What's important to keep in mind with this laptop is its target audience: students and people who need a light laptop on the go, for acessing the internet and using word processors. The resolution is *fine*, people are losing their crap over something that really doesn't matter at this screen size. The backlit keyboard is also completely irrelevant imo, unless you're some granny who doesn't touch type, and presses each individual key with their index finger like a fossil. As for the the specs; they also don't really matter for a laptop like this, it's not designed to be a 15 or 17 inch powerhouse gaming laptop, it's designed to be a lightweight laptop for students and people who just need a laptop for browsing the internet and word processing. It's basically the descendant of the netbook. It doesn't need a ton of storage, what are you storing on it anyway??? A bunch of word documents? This is a bad review imo, as it completely misses the point of the product and its target audience.

I feel like the value proposition for a Surface Pro 9 isnt that much better either. Am I wrong?

Great video - thanks - you really helped me say no to this laptop. Can't believe it doesn't even have a backlit keyboard. Cheers

You can have a very decent Legion for 999. Do the school/work thing, as well as have some fun with. This is a bust. But I bet it will sell.

Please make a video recommending laptops that are not expensive for a student that will start a computer science major

I have looked at these Microsoft laptops, and at what they cost here in South Africa I would never even think of buying one.

For the next iterations, I think MS should go the Apple way, with their own custom ARM processor, with a better display and keyboard lightning. It probably then would be a some custom Snapdragon chip. Too bad, other manufacturers will also start making ARM based Windows laptops soon.

For something that probably cost Microsoft $200 to make, they always cut corners on every product they sale. Geez!!!! Make it right the first time and no one will complain.

I got a Microsoft surface laptop go 1st edition when it came out for $550 for the 8gb 128 model. Most people who bought this laptop got a similar deal. Nobody would pay such a higher price when the laptop surface 3 or now 5 is priced at the same.

I bought a surface laptop go 2 a year ago. Used, almost new, perfect condition for 350€. I love the keyboard and design, that was the reason I bought it. But I have to say 12 inch is smaller than you’d expect.

The dude on fire. 😂 Thanks for the informative (& colorful) view.

I still have my Surface Pro 4 and it's running Windows 11 23H2, no flickering. For now it runs fine cos all I need is the edge browser and internet connection

Microsoft was awesome upto SP8. What happened after? Due to the insane amount of money they charge for ram, SP9 starts at 2K AUD for 16gb. My 8gb SP9 can't even surf the web. After booting i've a few hundred megs left and a few hundred megs cached.

Windows laptop used to be known as 'cheaper than apple'. Now, I see so many 1080p windows laptops priced more than the MacBook Air.

I got it as a second laptop for work on the go (my main laptop is large and much more powerful). I have to say, it's a wonderful little laptop for the price I was able to buy it for ($575). The only problem is a lack of backlit keyboard,

Dodged an absolute bullet with this one! Thanks so much for the candour and detail 🙏🏻

Great point! So only the "cute" size left as a con...

the most honest, fair, end-user experience oriented laptop review! This is the bar for laptop reviews and all product reviews.

Please keep up the honesty--what was Microsoft thinking???

I have the original laptop go and absolutely love the size. It's a pretty reliable laptop with great build quality. However, the laptop is definitely slow and the battery is awful (I'm lucky to get like two hours of usage). Any recommendations on other laptops that are similar size?

Surface needs to step up their game. They have the best designs, build quality and OS with zero bloatware. But I hope they provide better hardware specifications at more affordable pricing. At a $1000 other OEMs have a lot more to offer

I had it in my shopping cart and in the last second 💭one more review. Thank you! I would have been one of those stupid people if I had not seen this video. And thanks also for adding what we could buy instead 🌟

You're missing the point. This is for the person who has a desktop and possibly a larger laptop already. Go3 is the coffee shop laptop. The travel laptop. Chrages with usbc phone charger (65w).

Thank you the best reviews ever

My work primarily uses these. Good for enterprise but I wouldn't grab one yourself unless you get one for $600 or less.

the surface has always been so sexy but there's always something... off... about every model. release me from HP jail

Thank you for the honest review .

I bought one of these from Best Buy off the Open Box shelf for 300 bucks. The story was that it was "returned for not having a charger in the box"... I already had a surface charger so no big deal for me... I bought it, took it home, slapped Arch Linux on it, And I'm really happy with it. It's a great little road warrior, does conference calls, media, plays Stardew and Minecraft with no issues, and is comfortable on the lap, on a table, or in a backpack... But yea, I do think this satisfaction is shaped by the discount... OK... I just realized mine is a Surface Laptop go 2... but they seem indistinguishable... regardless, yea, if it had cost me 1000$, I guess I would have stole the charger and sent it back too, but for 300 bucks, I'm quite happy.

when first surface laptop launched i loved it so much. this is a brand that gave us surface pro surface book surface studio, now it become a grave yard of old devices

I have a surface laptop go 2. I got it open box for like 3-400 bucks. I5 8 gb of ram 128 SSD. I use it basically as a chromebook- email, youtube, taxes. It can run real software if I need it too, but often really don't. For what I paid I am happy with it. I would be annoyed if I paid retail for sure

Did you recycled this video or am tweaking ?

It's such a shame. Either go all in and make it a 1080p display and a backlit keyboard that lovely chassis and design deserves or make it 600-700 and let people make those compromises to save a few.

what about $400 for new one i bought today on Ebay ? Looks lb better.

if its $700 it is ok. i got my laptop go 2 almost a year ago, I hate its hot, the screen is reflective, it doesnt have backlit, it cant connect to multiple external display (it actually can but 2nd monitor runs in 30HZ), its noisy where the fan always kicks in. BUT the form factor is good, i like the touch screen, its 3:2, it has all the ports i need without need of dongle, it looks nice like a macbook. I have a serious love and hate relationship with this product.

Even the surface laptop 4and 5 are better deals at 600-799 range respectively. That’s even from Best Buy and Microsoft directly. You’re better off getting the full laptop or just surface pro line then the go.

Can you find an alternative of the same size or 13 inch at the same price of this or lower ? 😅

I think microsoft has amazing design concepts. Their surface laptop with detachable keyboard offers 2 in 1 that actually feels like a tablet if you want to. Something another 2 in 1 just fails to do. Same with the new powerfull laptop they have. Shame all their products are massively overpriced. I really wished other companies offered laptops with either a detachable keyboard like theirs or with the screen that folds over they keyboard flat so you can write on it without having to flip it and have your keyboard at the bottom.

You LENOVO Yoga Slim link is incorrect

This reminds me of the macbook value pre Apple Silicon

It's really cute for 399 if you don't care about any specs and just want a small laptop to do text editing and video watching.

I was planning to buy this laptop, many thanks for your advice, I will look for another laptop

Microsoft shoould have priced the surface go series around 499 for the specs they offer.

i got the tablet version for 200 and it surpassed all expectations! screen is sharp af (most likely just due to density), keyboard cover is backlit (got used for $25). also facial recognition yet to fail me, i can charge it with a damn phone charger, and the pros go on and on -- perfect secondary/on the go tiny win11 laptop

Well, with the death of the 11in MBA and the 12in MacBook, as well as the Netbook category in general, this is the smallest laptop you can get these days that runs Microsoft Office (locally). So Microsoft can basically charge as much as they want, because what else are you going to buy at that size?

It’s the only laptop I tried that even gets close to the Mac keyboard. Does anybody else have any recommendations

I'm considering buying this laptop only because it's lightweight and small. Thank God I found your video 😊

lol when I saw the specs and features on this thing the only thing that went through my mind was “wow that’s a great MacBook Air advertisement”

And that's not to mention that the Surface Go series battery life is TERRIBLE when under even modest load. My SG2 dies after a ballpark 3 hours if I do anything more than web browsing and light office work (not Powerpoint, I can kill the battery in about 2.5 to 2.45 hours if I'm working on a Powerpoint).

Surface laptops have always been 1 generation behind the competition, and quite expensive for what they offered. I don't understand what Microsoft is doing.

good work

Matthieu is flaunting that OnePlus Open like it's nothing 😂. Buddy, make a review about it already!

I think Microsoft is Ill informed about their pricing throughout their entire catalogue

I got the previous gen for $500 . It’s not bad at that price

They hardly improved it since the previous version which was backward too.

The backlight and color accuracy matter extremely little to me. The other laptops you mentioned are all bigger than this one. This laptop is more powerful than chromebooks with the same dimensions. No user upgradable ram and storage is anti consumerist. If the price was $500-$700 this might be worth it. Maybe in a few years when the price goes down.

i dont mind no backlight. coz im typingworking on light

You are wrong right off the bat on the price. It is 799 for the 8gb/256gb model. I will explain later why you are even more wronger at the end. But you being wrong keeps on going after that - People who want this do not want the Mac OS nonsense because they usually have real needs and real jobs that need real programs not named after the animal kingdom. They want something light. This one is light and extremely pick up and go. This is the type of machine you reach for even before a tablet since it is so compact and you get full control with a keyboard etc. Yes backlight absolutely should have been on there but not a deal breaker due to the other positives. It has touch screen which the Macbooks do not. Yes, it is a big deal and very useful option. I can sign documents with a standard capacitative pen stylus directly. It is one of the RARE machines that has a square format for those that actually use their machines for work spreadsheets and emails etc. and not just for binge watching. I use a VMware machine on top of the Windows and it works smoothly. It has a legacy USB port that allows your old items to stay in commission in a pinch. It has good battery life with quick USB C charging (powerbanks make this even less critical) It is an OEM machine from Microsoft with full support. This is the perfect machine currently in the market for someone like me that keeps the machine docked to a full sized monitor and keyboard set up and then unhooks from the USB C and hits the road or takes it to bed to read poor one dimensiional reviews on RU-vid. Back to the price. I got the 799 version for 719 as a student type offer which is not that hard to get on MS site. Then I was given an additional special 10% refund discount and expedited shipping. I get to use a sleek machine, that is light, touchscreen, square format, long battery and backed by the OEM maker. At home with a nice monitor setup and a light weight travel companion for my airplane bag or around town. It exists for the correct audience. Like me.